Mr. VINODKUMAR ASHOK PRADHAN [M.A. (Eng., Subject Comm n .,) B.Ed., NET, PGCTE] Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sadashivrao Mandlik Mahavidyalaya, Murgud Tal. Kagal, Dist. Kolhapur – 416 219. pradhanvinod99@yahoo.com 9960733174
* Born in Sandymunt, Ireland * A Poet and a Playwright * Started writing at the age of 17 * Influenced by W. Blake & Shelley * Fell in love with Maud Gonne, an Irish Nationalist * Then met Lady Gregory * He lived at Coole Park – symbol of joy, elegance, aristocracy in his poems * Was manager of Abbey Theatre for 8 years * His poetry became obscure, metaphysical & symbolic * Poetry is a mixture of the sensuous & metaphysical, lyrical & realistic, concrete & subtle * His contemporaries were Eliot, Auden & Pound * Died in Menton, France
Lets read the poem…
STANZA 1 Once more the storm is howling, and half hid * Howling – roaring Under this cradle-hood and coverlid * Cradle-hood – childhood My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle * Coverlid – covered But Gregory’s wood and one bare hill * Gregory’s Wood – Coole Park Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind, near poet’s house Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed; * Haystack – heap of grass And for an hour I have walked and prayed * Bred (pp of breed) – produced Because of the great gloom that is in my mind. * Gloom - sorrow
STANZA 2 I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour * The tower: Thoor Ballylee, And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower, name of Yeats’ residence * Arch: bow-like structure of And under the arches of the bridge, and scream bridge In the elms above the flooded stream; * Elm: a type of a tree Imagining in excited reverie * Reverie: imagination That the future years had come, * Frenzy: excitement Dancing to a frenzied drum, * Murderous innocence: danger Out of the murderous innocence of the sea. Expresses father’s anxiety about his daughter’s future
STANZA 3 May she be granted beauty and yet not * Distraught: distracted Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught, Or hers before a looking-glass, for such, Being made beautiful overmuch, Consider beauty a sufficient end, Lose natural kindness and maybe The heart-revealing intimacy That chooses right, and never find a friend.
STANZA 4 * Helen: Queen of Sparta Helen being chosen found life flat and dull * Great Queen: Aphrodite, Greek Goddess of Love and beauty, And later had much trouble from a fool, believed to be born out of the see While that great Queen, that rose out of the spray, foam * Bandy-legged smith: Vulcan the Being fatherless could have her way god of fire, Aphrodite’s husband Yet chose a bandy-leggèd smith for man. * Horn of Plenty: the mythical horn It’s certain that fine women eat of a sheep from which God Zeus drank milk; hence a source of A crazy salad with their meat inexhaustible wealth Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.
STANZA 5 In courtesy I’d have her chiefly learned; * Rove: travel aimlessly Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned By those that are not entirely beautiful; Yet many, that have played the fool For beauty’s very self, has charm made wise, And many a poor man that has roved, Loved and thought himself beloved, From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.
What is the storm once again doing? What is mean by cradle-hood? What does Gregory’s wood indicate? Where the wind has bred? Why the poet has walked and prayed? For how much time the poet walked & prayed for his daughter? For what does the poet pray in this stanza? What are the adjectives used for the sea in the last stanza? What kind of beauty the poet doesn’t want for his daughter? The beauty that should not make a stranger’s eye distraught. What kind of beauty the poet wants then? The beauty with sufficient end Who is Helen? Who is the Great Queen? Who is bandy-legged smith? Whom does the poet indirectly address as ‘fine women’? Who used to drink milk from Horn of Plenty?
STANZA 6 * Linnet: a tiny song bird May she become a flourishing hidden tree * Dispensing: managing That all her thoughts may like the linnet be, * Magnanimity: charity, And have no business but dispensing round benevolence Their magnanimities of sound, * Merriment: fun Nor but in merriment begin a chase, * Laurel: an aromatic evergreen shrub related to Nor but in merriment a quarrel. the bay tree, several kinds of O may she live like some green laurel which form forests in tropicl and warm countries Rooted in one dear perpetual place.
STANZA 7 My mind, because the minds that I have loved, * Assault: a physical attack The sort of beauty that I have approved, * Battery: guns Prosper but little, has dried up of late, Yet knows that to be choked with hate May well be of all evil chances chief. If there’s no hatred in a mind Assault and battery of the wind Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.
STANZA 8 * Accursed: very annoying An intellectual hatred is the worst, So let her think opinions are accursed. * Opinionated: one who express their opinions Have I not seen the loveliest woman born strongly and often Out of the mouth of Plenty’s horn, * Barter: to exchange goods Because of her opinionated mind for things rather than for Barter that horn and every good money By quiet natures understood * Bellows: a tool used to blow air For an old bellows full of angry wind?
STANZA 9 * Radical : a person who Considering that, all hatred driven hence, advocates thorough or The soul recovers radical innocence complete political or social And learns at last that it is self-delighting, reform; a member of a political party or part of a Self-appeasing, self-affrighting, party pursuing such aims And that its own sweet will is Heaven’s will; * Appeasing : satisfying She can, though every face should scowl * Affrighting : fearful And every windy quarter howl * Scowl : frown in an angry or Or every bellows burst, be happy still. bad-tempered way
STANZA 10 And may her bridegroom bring her to a house * Accustomed: familiar * Ceremonious : relating or Where all’s accustomed, ceremonious; appropriate to grand and formal For arrogance and hatred are the wares occasions, impressive Peddled in the thoroughfares. * Ware : small products for selling * Peddle : try to sell (something, How but in custom and in ceremony especially small goods) by going Are innocence and beauty born? from place to place. Ceremony’s a name for the rich horn, * Thoroughfares : a main road in a town And custom for the spreading laurel tree.
* A Quick Recap… At what level of age the poet started his writing career? SEVENTEEN Name the three contemporary poets of Yeats. ELIOT, AUDEN & POUND Where is the poet’s daughter in the poem? IN THE CRADLE In stanza 3, what does the poet demand from God for his daughter? BEAUTY Through the lines: It’s certain that fine women eat /A crazy salad with their meat – towards whom the poet is pointing? MAUD GONNE What does the poet demand for his daughter from God in stanza 5? KINDNESS With which bird does the poet compare his daughter in stanza 6? LINNET From which mythology the poet has taken references in this poem? GREEK Who was Helen? THE DAUGHTER OF LEDA AND ZEUS (SWAN) How many stanzas are there in the poem? TEN
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